WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday declined a request from Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers to grant her immunity in exchange for providing testimony to Congress.
Maxwell’s lawyers said in a letter on Tuesday that Maxwell would be willing to testify before Congress if she received formal immunity, alongside other requests.
If Maxwell “were to receive clemency, she would be willing — and eager — to testify openly and honestly, in public, before Congress in Washington, D.C.,” her lawyers wrote. Otherwise, she would assert her Fifth Amendment rights and decline to testify, they said.
But a spokesperson for House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said the committee would respond to the letter “soon” but “will not consider granting congressional immunity for her testimony.”
The committee subpoenaed Maxwell last week for a deposition from prison to take place on Aug. 11.
In the letter, addressed to Comer, Maxwell’s lawyers laid out several requests.
“First, public reports—including your own statements—indicate that the Committee intends to question Ms. Maxwell in prison and without a grant of immunity,” wrote lawyers David Oscar Markus, Leah Saffian and Melissa Madrigal in the letter. “Those are non-starters.”
Maxwell’s lawyers argued that she “cannot risk further criminal exposure in a politically charged environment without formal immunity,” adding that a prison setting for a deposition increases the possibility of leaks and “creates real security risks and undermines the integrity of the process.”
They also requested that the committee provide questions in advance and wait to schedule an appearance until after the Supreme Court decides whether to weigh in on Maxwell’s request that her conviction be overturned.
“Please let us know whether the Committee is amenable to these conditions,” the letter said. “If not, Ms. Maxwell will have no choice but to invoke her Fifth Amendment rights.”
The Trump administration has faced increased scrutiny over its handling of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, who died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The move marks the latest development in the controversy over the Epstein saga, which has proven to be a rare source of conflict in President Donald Trump’s base. Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted in 2021 on federal sex trafficking charges.
Maxwell met privately with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last week for about nine hours over two days. In a statement released earlier in the week, Blanche said that “President Trump has told us to release all credible evidence.”
